World

Russian shipowners pay fine to free trawlers in Senegal

DAKAR (Reuters) - Russian shipowners have paid a fine of 600 million CFA francs ($1.24 million) to Senegal to free two trawlers seized for fishing illegally off the West African state, in an incident that stoked diplomatic tensions with Moscow.

The trawlers, the Oleg Naydenov and the Captain Bogomolov, were seized on January 4 near Senegal's maritime border with Guinea-Bissau. Russia's Foreign Ministry had immediately sought an explanation from Senegal for their capture.